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Subject:Re: What makes a technical writer From:John Posada <jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 28 Apr 1999 06:17:18 -0700
> > - curiosity
> > - fearlessness (I come across even "experienced"
> tech
> > writers that have never pushed the little
> paintbrush
> > button on the MS Word buttonbar because they were
> > afraid they were going to screw something up.)
> >
> How would that particular "attribute" in a technical
> writer differ from
> the same "attribute" in a person who performs word
> processing?
>
Hello, Theresa...
Unfortunately, I'm uncomfortable answering that
question because I don't know what your "person doing
word processing" is really doing.
Some days, I only do word processing, some days, desk
top publishing, some days graphic artist.
I think what you mean, and no flames if I interpret
this wrong, is someone who takes existing text and
puts it into a document without consideration of the
end user, the user's environment, or other issues such
as localization, internationalization, reader level,
etc. Maybe in the past, this person was known as a
secretary? WAIT!!! WAIT!!! I'm not dissing the
secretary!! My mother was a secretary. It's just that
a secretary has certain defined job responsibilities
and a tech writer has other certain job
responsibilities. I couldn't do some of theirs and I
wouldn't expect them to do some of mine.
IF that is the case, the difference would be that the
word processor person wants to know what they need to
know to do their job. The technical writer person
looks for things that they not only need to do their
job, but any advantage that they can find to help
others also do their job better.
Maybe another difference would be that a word
processor will, if presented with the following, enter
it as given: "The button on the left will turn the
machine on." A tech writer will see that sentence.
However, they will be curious to know if that was the
best way to describe the concept, so they will go to
the machine, look at the button, and detirmine if that
sentence was the best way to describe the instruction.
(the left of what?)
Kinda like the difference between a mechanic and a
tool-and-die maker.
I'm sure that this response will raise the hackles of
some. Sorry.
===
John Posada
Western Union International
(w) jposada -at- westernunion -dot- com
(p) john -at- tdandw -dot- com
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